PDP : A BETTER ALTERNATIVE OR THE SAME FRUIT FROM THE POLITICAL TREE

       "No competition, No progress" - Bela Karolyi 

Competition whether harmless or harmful is present in every sphere of life so no exception can be made to the political life of Nigerian whereby the competition for the seat of power becomes more intense as the elections draw nearer. 

But, it is important to note that this competition is not usually amongst the over 96 political parties present in the country but is most time between two major ones i.e PDP and APC.  Next year's political race was also expected to be the same until, PETER OBI (aka OBI-DIENT) decided to withdraw from PDP and cross-carpet or deflect to LABOUR PARTY (LP), that is why politics is an unpredictable game.So, next year's power race is between PDP, APC AND LP. 

But our main focus for today and subsequent posts is on one of these prospective competitors and that is PDP.  Like I did for APC in my previous posts, I would also talk about the history of the party and some of the requirement for clinching the party's ticket either for the gubernatorial or presidential race, then based on the topic, I would try to draw out a comparison to see if PDP is better than APC or if we are eating the same fruit that has just been presented to us in different colours, size and shape. Feel free to tell me in the comment section what your opinion is too.

The above picture is the party logo of PDP. Their major recognition icon is THE UMBRELLA which if I define literally means they are there to protect us from the sun and rain, while APC's main recognition icon is THE BROOM which if I define literally means they are here to make our country clean and free of debris. 

 

POLITICAL HISTORY OF PDP 

The party was formed in 1998 (24 years ago) and was and is still one of the dominant parties in Nigerian politics.  The party's longtime slogan has been "Power to the people" . During the party's National Convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on 21 May 2016, David Mark, a former President of the Senate of Nigeria, introduced "Change the change" as the party's campaign slogan for the 2019 general elections in a bid to counter the APC's change slogan. Although, in 2018, the BoT Chairman maintained that the party will not change it slogan or umbrella symbol.

The party's political ideology is social conservatism and economic liberalism. The party has its headquarters located in Wadata Plaza, Michael Opara way, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja. And just like every other political party, the party's main aim is to contest and win political power and control of the country.

Ever since it's formation and even up till date, PDP has been performing some great feats in the political sector of this country and some of them are listed below:

• In 1998, the PDP in its first presidential primary election held in Jos, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria nominated former military leader Olusegun Obasanjo who had just been released from detention as political prisoner as the presidential candidate in the elections of February 1999, with Atiku Abubakar (Governor-Elect of Adamawa State and a former leading member of the Social Democratic Party) as his running mate. They won the presidential election and were inaugurated 29 May 1999.
• In the legislative election held on 12 April 2003, the party won 54.5% of the popular vote and 223 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives, and 76 out of 109 seats in the Senate. Its candidate in the presidential election of 19 April 2003, Olusegun Obasanjo, was re-elected with 61.9% of the vote.
• In December 2006, Umaru Yar'Adua (formerly of the Peoples Redemption Party and the Social Democratic Party) was chosen as the presidential candidate of the ruling PDP for the April 2007 general election, receiving 3,024 votes from party delegates; his closest rival, Rochas Okorocha, received only 372 votes. Yar'Adua was eventually declared the winner of the 2007 general elections, held on April 21, and was sworn in on May 29, 2007, amid widespread allegations of electoral fraud.
• In the Nigerian National Assembly election, the party won 260 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives and 85 out of 109 seats in the Senate.
• At the PDP's 2008 National Convention, it chose Prince Vincent Ogbulafor as its National Chairman on March 8, 2008. Ogbulafor, who was the PDP's National Secretary from 2001 to 2005, was the party's consensus choice for the position of National Chairman, selected as an alternative to the rival leading candidates Sam Egwu (who was backed by Obasanjo) and Anyim Pius Anyim. All 26 other candidates, including Egwu and Anyim, withdrew in favor of Ogbulafor. Meanwhile, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje was elected as National Secretary.
• In 2011, after the Peoples Democratic Party saw members defect for the Action Congress of Nigeria, some political commentators suspected that the PDP would lose the Presidency. Following PDP candidate Goodluck Jonathan's victory in the 2011 elections, it was reported that there were violent protests from northern youths.
• The party managed to control Nigerian politics from 1998 until their defeat in 2015 by the APC.

For more information on the party's history, check out our source: "Peoples Democratic Party (Nigeria) - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Democratic_Party_(Nigeria)

Looking at a party that has this tremendous achievement, it will be no surprise that the selection criteria for choosing candidates in the party's primaries would be as tough and stiff necked as possible. Over the years, this has been so and this year's own too would be no exception:

Located in the middle of the above bar chart is the statement of the increase in the prizes of the presidential nomination forms of PDP from the year 2015 up on until the nomination forms of the year 2023. 

The change in the prices of the nomination forms of PDP is relatively moderate as between 2015 and 2019 there was a 45.45% fall in the price and between 2019 and 2023, there was a 233.33% increase. This goes to show that the PDP relatively makes their nomination forms available unlike the APC who outrageously hikes up the price.

Looking at the above chart, it can be seen that the prices of the presidential, governorship, senate, house of reps and state of assemblies' forms of PDP  are relatively cheap as compared to that of the APC and relatively expensive as compared to that of the SDP.

But, it is very important to note that as the forms for PDP is relatively cheap. It is still expensive for a young random citizen to purchase which is a direct rebuttal of their so called #nottooyoungtorule. 

So, as much as the PDP has made their forms relatively cheap, they are still no different from their fellow counterpart APC whose forms are expensive because this proves that only rich and affluent people in the country can purchase the forms, thereby insinuating that PDP also chooses and approves a plutocratic system for leadership.

With that being said, it is obviously that PDP is the same as APC, though they might have different party crests, symbols, slogans and members. They still have the same ideology which is PLUTOCRACY. So, like they said the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, APC and PDP follow this adage and have become birds of the same feather so they fly together. 

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